Energy Efficiency of the ICT Sector

The European Commission recognises the enabling role the
ICT sector can play by for example rendering buildings more energy efficient or
improving the functioning of the electricity grid and managing water.
Nevertheless the European Commission is also aware that the sector itself is
responsible for carbon emissions which are rapidly growing and should be kept to
a minimum.

The above mentioned results follow the activities undertaken by the European Commission in the context of the Digital Agenda for Europe:

> At the initiative of the European Commission, the Chairpersons of the main
international standardisation groups working on the development of
methodologies to assess the environmental impact of ICT gathered on 20 January 2011 and
agreed that their standardisation groups would collaborate with each other in order to ensure coherence and compatibility of the methodologies that are currently being developed.

> The European Commission itself is working, in collaboration with Joint Research Centre Institute for Environment and Sustainability, on the development of two
methodological guides for the calculation of the environmental footprint of products and companies. It attaches great importance to the coherence of these two methodologies with the methodological work going on in the standardisation organisations.
Whilst the standardisation organisations are looking at the energy and carbon footprints mainly, the Joint Research Centre is looking at the broader environmental footprint.
The Commission will test the draft methodology by carrying out a series of pilot projects and organisations can express their interest in participating in this testing phase. For more information please consult:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/product_footprint.htm and
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/corporate_footprint.htm

> It has facilitated the launch of the
ICT for Energy Efficiency Forum
where the ICT sector is working to establish a methodology to measure its
own carbon emissions and once this has been agreed to commit to reduction
targets.

> The European Commission's
Joint Research Centre developed a voluntary "Code of Conduct on Data
Centres Energy Efficiency" and a "Code of Conduct on Energy
Consumption of Broadband Equipment". The Joint Research Centre brings
together European stakeholders to discuss and agree voluntary actions which
will improve the energy efficiency of data centres and Broadband Equipment.
In September 2010 the Commission hosted a conference where
additional companies committed to these Codes of Conduct raising the coverage to 72% of the EU's broadband lines.

>The energy consumption in the use-phase of ICT equipment is also addressed
by the Directive establishing a framework for the setting of
ecodesign
requirements for energy-related products.

This workshop took place in the context of the first
ITU
Green Standards Week, from September 5th to 9th 2011 in Rome, Italy.

The workshop focused on methodologies for environmental impact assessment of ICT, and examined work underway to measure the impact of ICTs on climate change, and how to standardize the way to calculate the reduction of GHG in ICT operation.

The workshop closed with a
Call to Action on industry, international standards bodies, governments, regulators, and academia to converge towards a common set of internationally agreed methodologies to assess the environmental impact of ICT in order to curb its growing contribution to increased energy consumption and GHG emissions.

The aim is to forge consensus among industry stakeholders on the adoption of a
common methodological framework for capturing the energy intensity and carbon
emissions of ICT.
The workshop will take stock from the progress made under the main existing
methodology-development initiatives in Europe and globally (international
standardisation organizations, ICT4EE Forum, privately-led initiatives,
third-countries...).
The workshop will explore piloting opportunities offered by the Commission to
road-test the methodologies fulfilling the criteria set in the Commission
Recommendation C(2009) 7604, and Key Action 12 of the Digital Agenda.